Nikhil S Dixit / DNA

• The 25-yr-old has worked in Drona as Bachchan Jr’s double

Mumbai, Sep 30: He thinks he looks just like Abhishek Bachchan. And that, he thought, should be reason enough for Big B to financially support him.

“Since I am an Abhishek lookalike, it is imperative that Amitabh Bachchan should look after me, support me and give me Rs 25 crore,” said Devisingh Padamsingh Rajpurohit. The 25-year-old was arrested by Mumbai crime branch on Sunday September 28 evening for allegedly attempting to extort money from Amitabh.

Rajpurohit was arrested because he allegedly sent a text message to Amitabh, threatening him with dire consequences if he did not pay him Rs25 crore.

Rakesh Maria , joint commissioner of police and chief of crime branch, said that last week, the anti extortion cell received a complaint. It sated that on the morning of September 26, Amitabh received a text message on his mobile. It read: ‘You are going to die and have only three days to live. Pay up Rs 25 crore, or else you will die.’

The anti-extortion cell of crime branch traced its source to Jhalore district of Rajasthan. A team went there and arrested Rajpurohit, who reportedly confessed to sending the message to Amitabh.

Maria said, “Some months ago, when Abhishek was shooting for his film Drona in Rajasthan, Rajpurohit went to the location and managed to convince everybody on the sets that he looked like Abhishek. He was even made to do a few scenes as Abhishek’s dummy.”

Later, Rajpurohit managed to get Amitabh’s cellphone number and began messaging him regularly. “He sent messages on birthdays of Amitabh’s family members and also when Teji Bachchan (the superstar’s mother) died. Amitabh returned the courtesy by sms-ing occasionally,” Maria said.

Rajpurohit tried his luck in movies. He managed to get a couple of roles in Rajasthani films. “But he failed to make it big in Bollywood and got frustrated,” said the crime branch chief.

Incidentally, Rajpurohit is the same person who had gone to Aishwariya Rai’s house on the day she got married to Abhishek. “A local newspaper had carried a report of how a clone of Abhishek had gone to Aishwarya’s house. That clone was Rajpurohit,” Maria said.

He added that it was not clear where and how Rajpurohit had planned to take the money from Amitabh and what he had planned to do with it. “We will question him further once we get his custody.”

Rajpurohit, a native of the Pokhran area in Rajasthan, is married and has two children. He was arrested by the AEC team on Sunday from Jhalore and was brought to the city on Monday. He would be produced in court on Tuesday.